Perhaps the Most Terrifying Day of Our Lives

Tuesday, August 4 - Flatwoods, Sutton, WV

Today had to have been perhaps the Most Terrifying day of our lives.

We arrived at a campground in Shepherdsville, KY, approximately 15 miles south of Louisville, on Monday afternoon. After getting the coach hooked up, we had dinner, then headed into Louisville to Churchill Downs to take a look around. We took photographs outside of the racetrack, since everything was closed by the time we arrived. We made a note of the opening time on Tuesday morning, and promised to be back in the morning. Next, we drove into downtown Louisville and did some driving around. While scouting about, we came across the Hellerich and Bradsby Bat Company, where the famous "Louisville Slugger" baseball bat is made. We got some pictures outside of the building, but we wanted to take the tour, so we promised to do that in the morning, as well.

We awoke early this morning (Tuesday, 8/4/09), got ready, and were out having breakfast by 7:30AM. The sky was cloudy, and looked like rain, but it was not raining yet. We headed into Louisville and stopped at Churchill Downs to visit the Kentucky Derby Museum. However, as we approached the Downs, the rain, which had started lightly before we got there, suddenly started coming down in torrents. We decided to wait in the car before attempting to get to the museum, since we had to walk across a huge parking lot to get to the building, and we did not bring an umbrella (duh!). We waited about 15 minutes and the rain continued to pelt down, so we decided to head downtown to the "bat factory".

As we began our trek into downtown Louisville, the sky opened up and rain came down in torrents! It was like sitting under a waterfall, with the water coming down on your head. Then, to top things off, it turned to hail!! We couldn't hear each other talk during the hail storm, so loud was the noise from the stones hitting the car. We were unable to see, so we pulled into a parking lot on the campus of the University of Louisville to wait it out. After a few minutes, the rain seemed to let up just a slight bit, so we ventured out again. Within a couple of blocks, the rain started again, with a vengeance! The streets turned into rivers, up to a foot deep in spots - deeper in others. Since it was almost impossible to make our way to the downtown area, we decided to head for I-65 South to return to the coach. We were thinking that the storm might be raging back at the coach, and Beasley gets very nervous in thunderstorms, so we wanted to get back as soon as possible.

Easier said than done, as we quickly found out. Most of the roads were blocked due to flooding. The GPS was going NUTS because we couldn't make any of the turns it was suggesting. It took us over 1 hour just to find an escape route to I-65, driving through water which covered the streets and reached almost to the bottom of the doors on the car. We were afraid to stop, for fear that we wouldn't be able to move if we did. So, we kept on moving through the rivers of water until we finally made it to the I-65 South ramp. The trip back to the coach was uneventful, as the rain subsided the further we got from Louisville. By the time we reached the motor home, it was STILL JUST CLOUDY!!!

After checking on and walking the dogs, we unhooked the motor home and got the hell out of Louisville in a hurry! Unfortunately, we were both too scared to even THINK about taking any photos during our ordeal! We did, however, get some pictures with our iPhones the evening before, when we first visited these venues.

Here's the link to the photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/Louisville?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-O1v_avpGPxgE&feat=directlink